Sherbrooke volunteers to represent Canada at world indoor soccer championships

OK, Canada, a new national indoor soccer champion has been crowned.

Sort of.

After teams from the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League could not make the trip, the University of Sherbrooke’s Vert & Or team, augmented with selected players from the Quebec Elite Soccer League, has accepted the invite to head down to Mexico and represent our country at FIFRA’s world club championships.

Thus ends the strange saga of how Canada crowned its official national indoor soccer champion.

Last year, FIFRA — indoor soccer’s governing body —announced plans to launch a club world championship, just like FIFA’s Club World Cup. A tournament was planned for Mexico. Calgary United, as the 2011 champs of the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League was invited to be Canada’s representative.

But, after the bubble over the team’s Calgary facility collapsed, the league announced in November that its champs didn’t have the financial wherewithal or the sporting will to head to Mexico. The CMISL, which has lost its Winnipeg franchise, leaving it with just Edmonton and Calgary at the moment, has yet to announce what it plans to do for its 2012 season.

So, FIFRA then slotted the Edmonton Drillers, the CMISL runners-up, as the replacement team. But no one ever called the Drillers — not that the team would have said yes had it been asked. When The 11 called the club last week to ask if it was going to Mexico or not, it was the first the team’s brass had heard of the invite.

When it was clear to FIFRA that neither Alberta team — the recognized champion and second-place finisher of what the governing body sees as the country’s top national league — Canadian board member Christian Prevost, who is based in Montreal, was asked to find someone to fill our country’s slot.

Anyone.

After searching through a series of elite men’s teams, Prevost found a taker — Sherbrooke.

So, what awaits the Vert & Or? On Feb. 2, the team will face the national champs from Ecuador, of which we know nothing. On the second day of the tourney, Sherbrooke has the unenviable task of playing what’s recognized as the best pro indoor soccer team on the continent (and by proxy, the world). The PASL champion San Diego Sockers — which features former FC Edmonton striker Dan Antoniuk — have not lost a game since Dec. 27, 2010. Really, if Sherbrooke could lose by less than 10, it would be a moral victory.

Sherbrooke finishes the round robin Feb. 4, with a match against the Mexican champion Monterrey Flash.

So, without further ado, here is the roster of your Canadian champions from Sherbrooke (and other spots in Quebec).

Goalkeepers: 
Julien Masson-Lefebvre
Federico Gonzalez

Defenders: 
Julien Chaurette
Luc Tétreault
Mathieu Prud’homme
Hugo Delmaire

Midfield:
Adam Frégeau
Gabriel Gagné
Ali Nafii

Forward:
Bruno Giuliani
Dominic Bélanger
Pablo Pintado
Alexandre Giuliani